Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-04-04
LAST OF THE SERIES.
A LARGE CONVERSATION PRESENT AT THE
CATHEDRAL, LAST EVENING.
10 Listen 10 Bishop Kains Closing Lecture on
the Redemption" - An Entertaining
Discourse.

demption, delivered in the Cathedral last
evening, Bishop Kahn presented an array
of indirect proofs in support of the claims
of the Catholic Church. These proofs
went to show the failure of the Protestant
system to answer purposes for which the
Divine Redeemer had instituted His
Church. These purposes, he remarked,
have already been gathered from the sacred
writings.
The Reformers separated from the COM
munion of the Roman Catholic Church on
the plea that that Church had corrupted
the doctrines of revelation. If Christ had
promised His presence and the presence OF
the Holy Spirit of truth forerer, as a guar
antee against such supposed contingency,
does not the plea alleged amount to de-
NAL Of His veracity and an admission OF
the failure of the Holy Ghost to guide His
Church forever into all truth? Is not such
an assertion blasphemous? But If the
many texts of Scripture containing those
solemn promises be twisted out Of their
plain and only Legitimate meaning,
what faith can be put In
the inspired word OF God?
Moreover, ifthe teaching authority OF the
Church be denied and every man be at
liberty to interpret the Bible for himself,
faith or belief in the revelation made by
God is reduced to a mere matter of indi-
yidual opinion. One man is a Trinitarian,
because he thinks the Bible telches the
mystery OF the Holy Trinity; another is a
| Unitarian, because he thinks the Bible
teaches there is only one person in the
Godhead. But the latter manifestly de-
nies the divinity OF our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ; now who will assert that the
divinity OF Christ is not an essential doc
trine OF Christianity?
Again. if the Church may teach error, is
not Christ himself responsible for such er-
roneous teaching inasmuch as He has
commanded us ito hear the Church
under penalty of being ranked among the
unbeIieving heather? The command of
| Christ to hear the Church is quite as ell
phatic as the command Of the Eternal
| Father to hear Christ, His well-belOved
Son. Therefore TO deny the authority OF
the Church, 1.-THE pillar and the ground
of the truth" is to rob the Church OF the
chief power delegated 10 her by her
| Divine Founder; whilst the assumption
that she may err in announcing the Gospel
| truths is equivalent to denial Of the YER
acity and power of Jesus Christ. Hence
! Professionalism would blot out from the
minds of Christians the true Scriptural
idea of the Church, which is charged by
Christ with making known To all men the
saving doctrines of our Blessed Redeemer.
The Bishop next developed the views OF
the early RelOrmers touching original SIN
and its consequences, and qualified these
views as fatally erroneous. In the theo-
logical system devised by Luther, and in
great measure adopted by Calvin, the like
ness or impress Of God stamped upon
Adam, making him child Of God
and heir of heaven, was an es-
sential or integral part Of hui
man nature; hence when that was
lost by sin, the very essence oil human ma
ture was ruined-sOme would say totally
depravtd. This involved the ruin OF mans
natural faculties and the loss Of free will,
as Luther maintains in his vOluminOus
treatise on The Slave Will, dedicated
to. Erasmus. Calyin's absolute pre-
destination likewise implies the alb
scnce of free will These theories,
the Bishop held, would lead to the subyer-
sion of all morality, if carried to their lOgi-
cal consequences in practice; for If man is
not free agent, he is not responsible for
his acts. The Catholic doctrine aScribes
to the free gift of God that divine image
which was impressed on Adam, rendering
him a child of God and heir Of heaven.
Its loss involved no destruction of the es-
sential and integral compOnents of human
nature. Though his natural faculties were
impaired by the fall, man still preserved
all that was essential TO his nature-there-
fore freedom of will
The Redemption should restore to man
the precious gifts forfeited by sin. This
Protestant theology denies There is no
true cleansing away even OF sin. Christ
cloaks over the sinner and hides his sins
from the eyes OF God. The Catholic
church says, Nay-but He washes away
sin and removes all its foulneSs from the
sinners soul In Protestant theology,
there is no real holiness communicated to
the soul; the sinner is accounted lust, hut
he is not really made Just or holy. The
very reverse is the teaching OF the
Catholic church, There is new
birth "a real regeneration through
Christ In Baptism, man becomes the
child of God-he is restored to the holy
union with God which was lost by sin.
st. John tells US that we are not merely
called, but that We are sons OF God; and
st. Paul adds, III sons, heirs also of God
and Joint heirs with Christ" Here then
is a real redemption; restoration to the
lost privileges of paradise, even the privi-
lege of a glorious immortality for the body.
The bread of life, emblazoned by the tree
of Eden, may be our daily nourishment;
and that life giving bread is the true body
Of Jesus Christ
At considerable length, the Bishop con-
tnued to argue that, as in the Protestant
system, Christ does not wash away our
sins, does not restore our lost holiness,
does not really regenerate rs, does not
vitality unite rs TO Himself, no sufficient
reason ran be given why Gods son has be-
come man and died the ignOminious death
of Calvary. Hence, how natural the
queries to which such a system gives rise:
did Christ die for our sins? Was He
God?" The Bishop closed with an earnest
appeal to seek the Christ of the Scriptures
in that Holy Church with which He prom
Used to remain all days to the end of the
gOrld
The Bishop said he would conclude the
cuurse of lectures by an emphatic denial
of the statement, which had been falsely
attributed u him-a statement contrary
alike To his own views and to the teach
| ings of the Catholic Church. He had said
no word fEgm which any honest mind
| could infer that ne excluded all Protest
ants from salvation. Who was he that
he should usurp the Creators jurisdiction
| and pronounce sentence If damnati0a on
any uf Gods creatures3 Such a thought
was abhorrent tn all his religious ideas.
lie had not been discussing any mans
personal and conscientious convictions; he
had been dealing with religious principles
| Christ had established His church rs the
ordinary means of salvation; but God was
tree to apply, By any other means He chose,
| the merits of Jesus Christ TO the souls